This year's Sports Illustrated's Sportswoman of the Year developed her ball skills in the hayloft of her family's barn. And the farm work ethic helped build Pat Summitt's eight NCAA championships with the Lady Vols of the University of Tennessee.

The future of food production will include a "mosaic of different farming systems," as one agronomist recently put it. But the systems still have to be sustainable -- and that means economically sustainable, too.